The House voted by a 121-12 margin to pass legislation that will salvage the General Assistance Medical Care program, allowing roughly 35,000 poor single adults to keep their health insurance. The bill previously cleared the Senate by a similarly lopsided margin and ratifies an agreement reached with Gov. Tim Pawlenty earlier this month to save the program.

The House is expected to take up General Assistance Medical Care legislation when it convenes this afternoon. Legislators from both parties reached an agreement with Gov. Tim Pawlenty earlier this month to salvage the program, which provides medical coverage for poor, single adults. The Senate subsequently passed the legislation with broad bi-partisan support.

Three Minnesota residents who depend on the state’s General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program to pay for their health care filed suit Thursday in Ramsey County District Court in an effort to keep the program running, despite Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plan to eliminate it.

After two hours-plus of floor debate this afternoon, House Democrats failed to peel off a single Republican vote to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of General Assistance Medical Care legislation. House DFLers came up three votes shy of the two-thirds majority required to enact the bill without Pawlenty's signature.

DFLers and Republicans are heading into the legislative session with differing ideas about how to provide health care to people who relied on the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program axed last year by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Legislative leaders emerged from their first budget talks of 2010 with Gov. Tim Pawlenty Friday afternoon expressing optimism about the forthcoming legislative session. But the goodwill seems unlikely to last once legislators dig into closing a $1.2 billion budget deficit and other thorny issues.